Busy brave birds

In the little window of time I had the other day (while also snapping dragonflies drinking and bees pollenating) I also happened to see a LOT of willy wagtails being busy around the edge of the river.  Like dragonflies, they are pretty hard to pin down for a decent shot.

This little guy was watchful on a fencepost.  I love the bokeh on these couple of shots – because they were relatively still, I could risk a shallow depth of field (high aperture) to ‘isolate’ them in the image.

Look! He has a twig… for… something? (Nest building perhaps? Hopefully not in my laundry again!)

The shots right ON the river were harder… and my skills at capturing them in flight and IN FOCUS were a bit hazy. (Pun fully intended!)

I do think they give you a feel for the chatty, zoom-zoom nature of their hunting activities though…

According to the Wikipedia info on these bustling little birds:

The Willie Wagtail perches on low branches, fences, posts, and the like, watching for insects and other small invertebrates in the air or on the ground. It usually hunts by hawking flying insects such as gnats, flies, and small moths, but will occasionally glean from the ground. It will often hop along the ground and flit behind people and animals, such as cattle, sheep or horses, as they walk over grassed areas, to catch any creatures disturbed by their passing.^[6] It wags its tail in a horizontal fashion while foraging in this manner; the exact purpose of this behaviour is unknown but is thought to help flush out insects hidden in vegetation and hence make them easier to catch.^[40] The Willie Wagtail takes ticks from the skin of grazing animals such as cattle or pigs, even from lions asleep in a zoo.

Tick-takers? Aren’t they HELPFUL little critters?  Even in zoos!!!

Yours in ever-learning wonder at Mother Nature’s creatures…

BB